Little [Harry Styles]

[22]

20th May 2015

***

The following few days were filled with too many phone calls to count with various members of Harry's legal team and his management. My head had held a constant dull thudding from the constant use of words I didn't know the meaning of and the seemingly never-ending ring of the phone. 

We'd moved to Harry's house pretty quickly after the first magazines began publishing the photo; knowing the battle would be made a lot simpler if we could escape the constant back and forward of visiting each other's houses.

"I don't understand why you're still telling me the same thing." I heard Harry protest; his paced footsteps audible from the lounge. "Surely they can't publish a baby's picture and there not be anything to stop them!"

He'd been having the same argument with the same people for days, and every time they'd end it saying they'd see what they could do, and every time they'd come back saying their hands were tied. According to everyone we had spoken to; while publishing children's faces in the media wasn't illegal, it was a very grey area, making it extremely difficult to stop media outlets from splashing our daughter's face wherever they wanted.

Social media had gone crazy with the photo, with the hashtag #BabyStyles trending worldwide on Twitter for almost two days and the photo being posted more times than I could possibly imagine, it felt as if the whole world knew about Isabella.

"They said they'll see what they can do." Harry's voice broke me from my thoughts and I nodded, sending him a brief smile as he took a seat on the nearby sofa, throwing his phone down as the homescreen of him and Isabella lit up the screen.

"They've been saying that for days, at this point it hardly seems worth it." 

"It's just not fair!" His hands came down harshly on his knees. "She's a baby, and they're allowed to just publish her face...it's wrong."

"Yeah, it is...but there's nothing we can do about it." I sighed, placing a hand over his on his leg, the right words to say escaping me. The past few days had felt like we were fighting a losing battle and, whilst I admired Harry's determination to get something done, the thought of having the same conversation for the hundredth time was enough to send me over the edge.

"I understand they're allowed to photograph me and publish whatever the hell they want about me...but not my daughter, that's not fair."

"Hey." I said, taking his hand in between the two of mine. "Don't worry...I know we didn't plan for this but it's out of our control now, the photo is out there now."

"I just know you didn't want this for her...this spotlight life." His eyes lowered to avoid eye contact with me and pulling his lip between his teeth. 

His bottom lip was dry and chapped from the amount he'd been chewing it the past few days, the seemingly endless hours of phone calls that just kept going around in circles clearly putting him under more stress and worry. I knew the whole reason he was fighting this so hard was for me as well as Isabella. He knew how important it was to me for her to have a normal life for as long as possible, and for us to be in control of the situation, but the reality of the situation was that we were never in control for very long.

The days since the photo had been published had been different. As if there was unspoken tension between us that we refused to speak about. The situation was neither of our faults; and yet I worried that whatever we were trying between the two of us didn't have the strength to hold us both up. 

The relationship we were building was comparable to a house of cards with foundations of dust, and I worried that this would be the slight gust of wind to send it tumbling to the ground despite my best efforts.